Vettel becomes F1's youngest race winner

Sebastian Vettel stuns F1 as he becomes the youngest race winner with victory at the Italian Grand Prix.

Toro Rosso's German driver Sebastien Vettel celebrates his maiden Formula One win at his team's home grand prix in Monza, Italy.

Sebastian Vettel became the youngest driver to win a Formula One race as he charged to an historic victory in a wet Italian Grand Prix. It was also Scuderia Toro Rosso's first triumph in the sport as their German racer at the age of 21 years and 74 days put in a scintillating performance to leave his rivals trailing. Conditions were tough for the drivers with the heavy morning rain forcing the stewards to begin the race behind the safety car as a precation against a first corner crash. But the track dried out during the race forcing a change from heavy wet tyres to intermediates. However, Vettel was rarely threatened at the front as he drove with a maturity that belied his age. He held off the McLaren of Heikki Kovalainen, with the BMW Sauber of Robert Kubica third. The main title protagonists had a fascinating afternoon as Felipe Massa finished sixth for Ferrari, one place ahead of Lewis Hamilton's McLaren - the result seeing Hamilton's championship lead narrowed to one point. Vettel, who was competing in only his 22nd race, said: "The whole race we had no problems, the car was working really fine. I had a fantastic race, a really good strategy, but all that was gone when I crossed the chequered flag. "For sure this is the best day of my life, these emotions I will never forget, it is so much better than you might think it is. "I can just say a big big thank you to the guys in the team, they did a fantastic job, who would have thought it at the start of the season." Vettel had led the field from pole position once the safety car had come in at the end of lap one, although his teammate Sebastien Bourdais had suffered massive disappointment as his fourth place on the grid was wasted becasue he was unable to leave the grid and had to begin a lap down from the pitlane. In the early laps Vettel pulled away from Kovalainen and the pack as he opened up a 10-second lead, and he admitted that being at the head of the others had proved to be a big advantage "Being first and having no visibility problems was the key," he said. "I could make a good, solid gap to Heikki straight away and then I was pushing very hard, sometimes I went over the limit and it got hard." Most eyes were further down the field as Massa challenged the Williams of Nico Rosberg for fourth place, while Kimi Raikkonen and Hamilton tried to move up the order from their low respective qualifying positions of 14th and 15th. Once Hamilton had passed Raikkonen's Ferrari on lap 11 at the first Lesmo corner he began to charge through the field, although some of his moves were somewhat questionable. He pushed the Toyota of Timo Glock wide and on to the grass, and forced Fernando Alonso's Renault into avoiding action as they braked for the first corner. Vettel made his first stop on lap 18 and Massa, who had got in front of Rosberg, briefly led before he made his first pit-stop four laps later. Hamilton briefly ran as high as second and on a one-stop strategy he made his stop on lap 27, dropping down to 10th. If the track had stayed wet he would have been looking very good for a podium place, with all his rivals due to stop again, but critically more and more dry patches began to appear on the track. Alonso and fellow one-stopper Kubica both changed onto the intermediate compound as the wet tyres began to lose their grip. Vettel and the rest of the front runners also made the change, and finally on lap 35 Hamilton changed tyres losing the advantage and track position he had gained. He came back on track seventh, eight seconds behind Massa, but was helped as his Brazilian rival was being held up by the BMW of Nick Heidfeld. But although Hamilton quickly closed on Massa, he was unable to challenge as the track dried further. Indeed he soon had the Red Bull of Mark Webber, who had run third in the early stages, on his tail and the pair touched wheels at the first corner on lap 48. Neither car suffered any damage and Hamilton was able to stay behind Massa until the end. Kovalainen drove well without threatening Vettel for his third podium of the year in second position, while Kubica kept his slim title hopes alive as he closed the gap on Hamilton to 14 points with his third spot. Alonso was fourth, ahead of Heidfeld, while Raikkonen's floundering championship defence appear to be all but over after he could only finish ninth. The Finn was caught out by the change to intermediate tyres, and although he was the fastest driver at the end of the race it was too late for him to score any points. [e-mail]